Yu-Gi-Oh Xenocross
by AyaComet
Summary: In the year 2015, 200,000 players are transferred somewhere else. A band of Touhou fans, the YTDC, along with everyone involved are stuck on an advanced and nature havoc place that is mainly about Yu-Gi-Oh. Beyond the sophisticated infrastructure all must survive in, a crisis occurs back in their homeland. In order to return, they have to defeat the Game Maker at the highest level.
1. The New World

It is the year 2015.

In a vast world where many tragedies and truths are undone, there is a poison in the root of reality, that which is the unreality. Within the past and towards the future, people look for an answer of the moments that has terrified them. People, whose eyes scantily seek out a light in the darkness, cry out as the falls of the perspicuous nature around them bellows side by side. An answer is found and given, but no more than a shallow arrogance from society.

Outside this world, multiple lights cover the sky in space. It dimly glows and has originally came from Earth. An anomaly transpires in the terrene.

It's Saturday, 7:00 pm in a suburb called Melias and a hot day rains down on the area. Within a silent home lays a prone figure, tangled in white bed sheets with a mop of black, loose hair

A loud and obnoxious sound suddenly pierces through the room with cries of "Onii-chan! Wake up!" before being swiftly silenced by a hand that smashes down on the source of noise. The alarm clock stops and lays on its side. "Ugh...it's so hot."

Slowly opening his eyes of brown with a pitch of black, Ronnie, an eccentric college student, looks out across the distance beyond his window and expresses a wave of boredom. He is skinny, but his height is comparable to that of a major sports league player, not saying that he's equally as energetic, however.

With eyes wandering around the living room, where many others are sleeping over from a party last night, he notices how painfully ordinary it is. He then hears a particular eerie sound from the TV and probably outside too. Looking at the window with a plain face, he goes with the usual precept he thinks everyday. "This boring world..."

Slowly climbing out of bed, he starts up his laptop and proceeds to follow the daily and monotonous procedure of tooth brushing, face washing and preparing breakfast. Tossing his bowl onto the table, the laptop besides it gives off a weird vibe as if it were malfunctioning, but most of this is not noticed.

"Hey, Ronnie!"

It is his brother, Ydnar.

"Yes?" Ronnie says, as he chews on his bowl of cereal. "What is it?"

"I'm gonna be looking for some opportunities to get me some money!" Ydnar enthusiastically replies. His brother puts his food in the microwave. It explodes and a small quake happens. However, he is too active with his own personal studies to care about it.

"Ehhh…" Ronnie slowly turns his head and nods. "What about your single life? Anyone going to be your wingman tonight?"

His brother, who is older than him by about 4 years, laughs and blushes while thinking of the crush he's always been onto. He contemplates on seduction strategies. However he's in a rush and dresses up to leave, going to do the many things that one would see every day in life.

Ronnie gets orange juice. He speaks out, "No hope."

"Hey!" Ydnar feels sad. "Well at least I tried." A small tear drops.

"Shouldn't you dress nicer though...?" Ronnie mumbles.

There is dirt on his pants and some stains on his shirt. There are some faded colors in his clothes. Fashion is important to some extent, but this society is fine with males dressing sloppily and besides, there aren't that many industrial places that would dedicate such fashion for men.

"I'm in a hurry." His brother reasons while glancing at his watch. "Well, I gotta go. Make sure you look after everyone here!"

Ronnie looks at him with a dull expression. He also sees too many people around here and the feelings of laziness starts to overcome.

"Whatever, Ydnar."

With that, Ydnar quickly exits the premises and leaves Ronnie to schedule his own activities and fix the mess around the house. As Ronnie tries to go around the mass of friends sleeping over, he tripped on a leg, kicked in the face by another and somehow in a chokehold by the loli on the floor.

"Guaahh...not now...not ever!" He forces himself to get on to the game table in the center. He drags his fingers, then his hands, and lastly, everything to get off of the pressure everyone near him is giving. "Sheesh, sleeping to them is like being awake." Ronnie slightly irked.

He looks at his laptop and starts up the game he usually plays which is Yu-Gi-Oh.

Yu-Gi-Oh is a card game developed by Konami. In this game, you have an abundance of cards to make a deck in order to formulate strategies or fulfill win conditions to defeat your opponent. This time though, he isn't in the mood to play and simply looks at his status in the game. He checks out other cards to see what he could make with them.

"Hmm... if only I can use Stegocyber for something decent."

His chat beeps. It is the group that he is in. It is known as the YTDC. Many chat notifications along with a popular J-Pop song, fill the noises coming out from the laptop's built-in speakers. In the wall background of the laptop lies his forever favorite character, Aya Shameimaru.

His chat signature slightly shows. A name he had no choice but to make it look weird just to have a game name. At the same time though, it is intriguing. The profile reads, "MoonlightComet."

Disinterested with the chat, he looks onward to check the host rooms in the game, the place where you could join rooms to play, and sees that almost no one is on.

"_That's weird_." He puzzled. "There's usually a whole bunch of people playing around now. _Where are all the silly things that people do on here_?" Perplexed, Ronnie turns his attention back to his breakfast. "Well, whatever..."

He finishes the rest of his cereal and then hears something odd from the TV. He looks at it, but the noise from the other people living in the house obscures his interest to it and looks back at the laptop and turns up some music.

Sometimes, the world just needs an inspiration. Not the positive kind, but one that is true and deep. This world doesn't seem to hold much worth of attention. The lack of interest is not a social problem or health issue that one may harbor but more rather, the underlying problem is the things to be interested of. It all passes by with many amazing feats compassed everyday, but that doesn't mean things changed. The wind blows, but they don't know where it goes. So it is with this world seeking an answer in a life of unreality.

"I guess I can play one game."

The game begins. He draws.

He opens up with 3 good cards he likes to see: Artifact Sanctum, Facing The Shadows and Traptrix Myrmeleo. Many times, this is the kind of hand that just wins games. His opponent, named "Joker", begins first.

In Yu-Gi-Oh, the starting player begins with 5 cards, and there are 2 main zones on the field. Monster zones and then, Spell/Trap zones. Spell and Trap cards usually help tip the balance of the game. They can be support or offensive cards. Monsters, on the other hand, are the ones that fight and deal damage to the opponent. With the new rules in play, your opponent has to lose a total of 8,000 Life Points [LP] to lose.

As he looks at his hand, he notices the opponent setting 3 Spell or Trap cards slowly, and then a monster face-down.

"_Usually_," Ronnie thinks, "_that means the opponent wants to preserve his backrow the most, and his monster is just a lesser important option that isn't too big to deal with_..."

One of the rules in this game is that the second turn player game gets to draw 1 card at the start of the turn. Afterwards, the player who went first can begin his draw phase every turn, and so can the other. Automatically, the player going next has an advantage over the one that goes first. But, the starting player has a better set-up as well as prepared counters for the opponent, which is just as good as the card advantage from the first draw.

Ronnie commences his turn with a draw. Immediately, he instinctively selects his Traptrix Myremeleo to bring her out. Just as he was about to summon his monster, the game glitched out and the pc malfunctions.

"Huh!?"

Being the skeptical person he is and suspecting the odd going ons, he takes a safe position a few paces back and ponders about the situation. When weird events occur one too many times, one has to stop and deal with them. Now that he thinks about it, he did hear noises outside that that gave off feelings of despair and franticness. He checks to see if everyone else is safe in his house, and then he looks at the TV.

Inside the news building, a reporter dressed in red velvet speaks,

"-many troubles and sudden pulses in stores, as well as clothes being left on the floor. Natalia takes us to a nearby store in Los Angeles, California, as to what is going on as she describes the events taking place."

Ronnie stops. "Ahah...ahahahaha! What nonsense."

He has a thrill and excitement for adventure, despite the strange hint of danger. Nonetheless, he looks off in the reality of things and knows that silly event like that can't really happen. After all, this world has no taste in fun nor extraordinary things. Ronnie, however, looks back and pays attention to the news, because indeed, something is off about what is going on.

The Natalia person, in a rushed manner, looks at the scene while trying hard to have a formal appearance on camera. It is cloudy over there and there are a lot of cries out in the background.

"Right now, you can see families having lookouts and putting up posters of missing family members. There's also sparks and dust left on the spots of those who disappear."

"Disappear...?" Ronnie mummers silently.

And then, his laptop flashed.

At that moment, he gave that sudden flash a glare. He knows that something is fishy, but at the same time, he can't ignore it. His friends hanging out here might be in danger of this supernatural event.

The YGOPro duel screen flashes.

Ronnie sighs.

"It's just that."

A friend sleeping nearby the table went, "Uaaahhh…" Ronnie tried to stay quiet so that his friend doesn't wake up. He seems to look up, and drops down. "Ok..." Ronnie continues to see what's going on.

He sees that his deck building menu is still there. The duel he had though is disconnected. It reads "Error", which is not what the sign usually said before when games broke off.

Yu-Gi-Oh is a famous game after all. So much so, that there are even regular console and handheld games of it. YGOPro is a Yu-Gi-Oh game that is readily available to those online. It does not have an adventure story in it, but it does have its own customizations and all the current cards to access in real life. It's good enough for simulations and helps those who don't want to spend money on this game by buying cards.

Ronnie notices though, that his chat and other icons are not on there like they should be. But that is of minimal concern right now. He sighs in relief, knowing that his family is safe and in the corner of his mind, wonders about his single life as well.

"Objectives over pointless things anytime, any day." He proudly declares.

Ironically enough, he thinks he needs to turn off his laptop just in case but then sees that his deck is not saved. Before he does save it though, he decides to organize it a bit quickly.

"This card shouldn't be in here; the meta of this format can easily overcome that kind of stall strategy. In that case.." Ronnie slides the mouse to drag the cards he likes out of the deck, and inputs the previous strategy he wanted. He chooses Onomatopaira, a normal spell card that can be used to ditch a card that plusses you when it hits the graveyard and get the combo pieces you need. Just as he was about to put it in the deck section however...

A white flash.

A sporadic and colorful vortex pushes him and also, bewildering to his eyes, many others, into a fiery hole brimming with white. Ronnie thought, while trying to get a grip onto anything he can hold, that something like God's judgment can't be happening now, or even some final conclusion to an apocalypse. Everyone is getting closer to the exit and as they are pressed forward there, Ronnie is shrieking along with all the confusion everyone else has. "Aaah…!"

They passed through.

It burns and hurts like acid. Reality seems to visually change, and definitely, there appears to be an alteration to our senses. Whatever it is though..

They are in a forest.

Ronnie is on the ground lying next to a tree stump. "Aaaahhhh!" He cries out from the excruciating pain. The leaves scatter and as he positions himself with his legs, dirt is swept aside and twigs roll along with it. He looked at himself and saw that he is wearing never before seen gear. It is as if it were townsfolk clothing from a game. The fashion is so awkward, yet it's definitely better than the plain looks one sees in their industry every day. Normally, one would laugh and say how silly it is, but this situation is too daunting to bother with that. He then realizes what his priorities are in situations like this.

First, he checks his health condition. Ronnie looks at his sides, and then his legs. He sees that they are fine and there's no need for further check-up. Suddenly, something gently flows down from the sky and trees.

It is in a yellow, spherical orb of aura. It appeared like a game item.

There are a few other people searching the area, but they haven't took notice of the thing he was staring at. Some were calling out to each other to see if they need help.

"I guess I have to see what this is." Ronnie looks with serious noting.

Funny enough, they are Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

"What the heck? This can't be for real..."

Ronnie scans around the area and sees that it does look like a battle area. He looks back at the cards. Suddenly, a screen appears before him with the buttons "Accept", "Deny". In the right side, appeared a column saying, "Items".

With a skeptic, yet flat face, he blandly took note of the interesting situation he is in. But of course, it's better to have something than nothing, and the others are coming in close. He quickly pressed "Accept" and a colorful, bright green wisp floats to his side. It's best to move to a good distance away from them, because who knows if they are safe to approach or not

"Hey, you there!"

A rude voice approaches, but Ronnie can't simply be idle and respond to him. He quickly rushed down a thin thicket of bushes and ran pasts many trees. He thought he lost them but saw a few people in the corner of his eyes. They are following him.

As Ronnie continues running, he sees that a small ledge is up ahead. He gets on it and looks below him. Underneath him is a steep hill, but he decides to jump and slide down it. There, tucking and rolling on the way, he made sure his vigorous movements appeared crazy in order to try and deter the pursuer. He got away.

A calm, trickling sound resonated from the stream, and Ronnie finally sat down. A serene atmosphere calms him down. He checked his pockets but they are empty and wonders how to see the cards, or any other enigmatic objects he may come across to.

"Well then... that's odd." Ronnie searched his pockets again but it proves fruitless. "I definitely need to have some sort of method to this right?" He remembers how that menu suddenly appeared, asking him to accept the item. It was not connected to a device or even an electrical plug. This world seems to be disastrous, but at the same time it is organized, clean and oddly well maintained.

"Welp, I give up..." He stares at the water on the side of the stream, and then back to his original posture. "Work, damn you!"

Nothing happens.

"That's when things are supposed to happen." Ronnie sighs.

He looked towards the sky and sees an odd species of avian he couldn't even name. However, they don't seem to fit for survival here. This place is extravagant but there are animals here that can endure this landscape despite not being in their natural habitat

Getting up, Ronnie clumsily leaning too far forward, fell. He hit the shallow water and became drenched before meandering his way back to shore.

"_Why am I so clumsy_?" He thinks to himself. The daunting realization of having eaten only breakfast hits him hard. He would not only have to find food here, but shelter as well. And Ronnie is certainly no expert when it came to surviving outside of civilization.

"You need help?" Came a voice.

Looking up, Ronnie sees a short, skinny figure whose bangs swept over his left eye. Dressed in oversized clothes, this person with a calm persona observed the vicinity as he continued his gesture.

The boy lends out a hand to Ronnie, to which he responds by lifting his own hand out of natural instinct to help himself. Ronnie is pulled out. The unknown person tries to get some sort of belonging from his attire to which, it seems that he no longer has. Ronnie was worried, as who knew what this person could do, but considering his position, he felt that he should refrain from drastic actions.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Do you know where we are by any chance?"

"Uhh..." Ronnie tries to regain his senses and then looks around the area. Mystified by the mysterious place, he tries to relate the region to past experiences but gives up with a clueless train of thought. He replies, "No idea…"

The new fellow breathed in a lungful of air and tidied himself up. "This place is so surreal." The unfamiliar boy commented, while looking around from where they stood.

The stream continued on to a body of water that never flowed out in any erratic direction. The trees swayed calmly and there are rocks of all shapes and sizes placed everywhere. The branches of leaves and bushes on the right side had about an even distance between their patches along with an upward hill that seemed to lead to a mountain. These land formations had figures that resembled those of an entrance or hideout. The strange part is though, there is not a lot of disorder, broken branches, nor other objects that obscured any major or minor passageways.

"We were all transported here so suddenly. It makes me wonder if this is some sort of game at times."

"Yeah." Ronnie glared around the area and the misfortune taking place.

"We need to find a place to stay though, before it gets dark."

Ronnie then remembers that he forgot about his manners. The formalities that mankind use to get to know each other. However, he doesn't follow the traditional sense and tries to greet him friendly.

"I'm Ronnie." He solemnly said.

The boy who was looking around, turned around and said casually, "Oh yeah, nice to meet you. I'm Tenma."

They shook hands.

But then...!

If this is Tenma, then does that mean he is the one from his group chat? Thinking about it, he did look similar to the one in the picture he sent us all, a while back.

"Ronnie, huh..." He gave a silent stare and wore a look of curiosity, as if trying to figure out something. He turned to his right and a thin path is emphasized from the direction he's facing towards. "Well, while I was on higher ground, I did spot an area that has a town down below. We should continue going south until we hit a walk path leading there."

Tenma grabbed a sharp edge, similar to a knife and continued to go down the road he was looking at earlier. Ronnie, still having suspicions about him on whether he's friend or foe, pondered if he should follow him. But then again, it's better to survive as a group. Being by yourself is not so beneficial, and he did help him after all.

"Ok!" Ronnie calls out.

Tenma makes a quick pace over the unknown area. Ronnie jumps over the many rocks around them. They eventually hit a broader, lighter path. It is still visible and definitely used, but not so dirty. The trees on the left and right are about even, and there is a beautiful array of fallen leaves everywhere.

"So, how did you get here?" Ronnie asks in curiosity. He has a tendency to get to know others at odd moments or weird scenarios.

Tenma rubs his chin. He tries to keep track of where the town was and then replies, "I was on a gaming marathon. You know, FPS and RPG. I was messing around and leveling up, and then destroying a lot of noobs. On the last game of my marathon, it suddenly malfunctioned, and then, I end up here." Tenma lifts up the branches in his way and they saw that they are about halfway down the path that led to town.

"Wow, sounds unlucky. What game was malfunctioned, by the way?" Ronnie looks at the side to see the lovely scenery.

"Ah, it is YGOPro, a game where people play Yu-Gi-Oh" Tenma laughed. "I was using a troll deck called Noden Ice Barriers, but apparently, after spamming 3 Nodens, it just stopped moving for a few moments."

"Heh. Those poor fools…" Ronnie says.

Not before long, Ronnie gasped and knew who he is with. Right when he's about to let him, "his friend", know who he was, a light descended gently in front of us. "Huh…? Another orb." Ronnie looks up and his sight trails it.

Tenma calmly assessed the situation. "I don't think we should approach that."

"Wait, I know what it is."

"I should let you know."

"What?"

Tenma sighs, "Before this, I was attacked by a beast. It was quite surprising and vicious." Tenma reaches into his pockets.

Ronnie jolts lightly in confusion. He asked, "What was that fiend you ran into...?"

Tenma brings up the sharp knife he was carrying before. "I used this to fend for myself and escape eastward to a safe location. I was just wondering around to figure out the situation I was in. There was 1 other person beside me. However, I don't think he survived. We were walking in a rocky formation in the upper parts of this forest, and right when we were gonna go over past the hill, it appeared.

A monster.

The item that glowed hit the ground.

Ronnie begins to walk to the item.

Tenma continued, "He pushed me out of the attack to save me and warned the others. The monster was getting close to me. I grabbed the sharp stick to hit it but my friend threw me to the side to get me away from it."

The item shows the same menu. The words, "Accept" or "Deny" appear once again with "Items" being shown in the right section the same as last time.

"How is he?" Ronnie asks. Ronnie leans down and look at the mystical object.

Tenma thought for a second, and replied with a long sigh. "I didn't have a good look, but I did see a town from that point. I quickly went away and try to relay the location of this town to the others, but they are not in the same place where I last saw them." He cautiously looks around the area. "If I recall correctly, he had blood on his head, his shirt was torn and was still defending himself."

Then Ronnie had a flash of realization. It could have been that guy calling out to me earlier.

Tenma observed the item. "Oh wow, they're Yu-Gi-Oh cards." He laughed.

"Yeah, it's not dangerous."

Tenma accepted the item.

"Now, how do we access this...?" Tenma asked.

Ronnie tried to joke as if he could hand out the item that he took earlier, but suddenly an orange menu appeared, reading "Stash: 20 cards. Incomplete."

"Well now, that's interesting." Tenma looked at my menu. He repeated the same moves I did and took a step forward, holding out his hand. Nothing happened. He did it again and suddenly, his menu also appeared. It is the same color as well. "Apparently, you need to think you are bringing out something. It's kinda like having faith."

Ronnie holds out his cards, and then a sign appears, saying, "Give" and "Cancel".

"Hey, Tenma, how about I give you these cards and we just make a deck?" Ronnie suggested.

"Hmm. Sure, why not. Since we don't have much else to do anyway but go to the town and live, haha!" Tenma laughed. "I also get the feeling that this place has to do with Yu-Gi-Oh in a way."

Ronnie pressed "Give".

A green light appeared, and it transferred to Tenma's "Item" location.

"I see that each of these yellow like orbs contain 20 cards." Tenma pointed out. Tenma watched as the number 20 jumped to 40. "Also, the-"

Just as he was about to look back, a large, thundering sound echoed in the background, getting closer. Before either of us knew it monster appeared.

It is dark with menacing eyes, and the horns added to its sinister appearance. There are little wings on its sides and there is armor covering a large portion of the body. It almost resembled a ghoul-like zombie. This guy is definitely not friendly.

"Duel" or "No Duel" appeared, much like the previous menus, accompanied by a mechanical, feminine sounding voice.

Tenma reacted fast. "That's the same monster!" Ronnie looked at the strange monster before them. They put themselves on guard, however...

The monster slowly shifts to them and sometimes just standing.

"It's not aggressively approaching us." Tenma noted.

It seemed like it is waiting for us to make a decision. It stared at the wristband on Tenma's arm.

That wristband.

_"In fact, since when did we get these gizmos_?" Ronnie thought. It has to be related to this world. Ronnie tells Tenma what his idea is.

"Duel it."

Tenma rationalizes about it, and then chuckles. "When the world is going down, might as well duel."

Ronnie prepares to run and make a quick getaway plan in case his theory didn't work. Tenma showdowns on the monster and hits "Duel".

"Uraaahhhh!"

With exaggeration and belief in himself, Tenma lifted up his arm wearing the mysterious wristband. There was silence and the monster approached. There is nothing.

"Oh, crap..." Ronnie looks with disbelief and reinforces his plans of escape.

Tenma did not however, and persisted, believing in his gut feeling.. A small flash occurred in the space between Tenma and the monster. Seemingly electrical lines spread throughout the area of where they stood and dissipated. The monster approaching them moved slower, and starts to float in the air a bit. It is not going to attack us but rather, it raised its arm, and something like a third wing appeared. It looked like a duel disk, but it is made of its flesh and covered in feathers from its wings.

A red glint showed in its eyes and Tenma looks at the distance.

A compact energy field appears outward from Tenma's wrist. It is his duel disk. There are no field and standing zones for them. The whole forest is their battleground.

One would, without a doubt, deem that this is insane and creepy. But then again, considering their awkward circumstance, it is best to not underestimate what could happen. Tenma's item slot appears. He has to choose a deck.

"Now, I see why this happened..." Tenma said with a stern voice. "We had no deck before, but now that we do..." Tenma selects the deck from our collection. "Hmm."

"I guess only a card game can solve problems, huh?" Tenma smirks.

"Probably." Ronnie shrugs.

The enemy floats and stays firm with its posture. Its arm set forward and the wind of the forest blew around us. Five cards rushed out from the top of the strange object set on their arms where the deck sat. They floated in front of them, and a lighter red colored screen appears in front of Tenma. This setting, the familiarity of it all...

They both knew it was time. The two shook their head.

"Tch, this game..."


	2. Confrontation

The battle begins.

The monster goes first.

It summons Stone Ogre Grotto. Suddenly, a small whirlwind encircles and rocks gather in around there to form a bulky body. The creature stomps his feet on the ground and roughly moves towards us with a perverse intent. The ogre has a firm posture ready to attack. Next, the foe activates the "Dark Door". A curse-like green aura and mirage of a dark door materializes and is then concealed. It then sets 1 card and ends its turn. Tenma is busy observing the sudden changes and the dueling system. He then takes a look at what he has.

Now normally, this is not hard to overcome. But, Tenma's hand…

"Blade Skater, Acrobat Monkey and Aqua Madoor…" Tenma muttered.

A card launches itself out and stops in a position floating slightly outwards the deck. In this duel system, the player is suppose to draw the card that is propelled out during the draw phase. He draws.

Tenma does not seem surprised of what he drew. Ronnie thinks that there is problem going on but is more focused at the outcome of the battle. Tenma assesses the situation. There are 3 monsters in his hand, and even though he went second, the draw advantage is not of much use. He has Cyber Shield in hand but he can't even use it. "Hmm, I have no choice but to set this in defense mode." Tenma drags the card, Aqua Madoor, from the energy floating holder that is very close to the edge of his wrist and puts it in the monster zone shown on the lighter red part of his screen. The card hits the screen firmly, yet in a smooth fashion. On the spot he plays that card in the light red screen, a thin rainbow of light resembling that of data seems to sporadically spread out and quickly analyze the card placed in. Shortly after, a majestic card sits afloat across the ground in the monster area. Tenma sets the only trap card in his hand face-down. On the field, a mirage of a face-down card behind the set monster appears for a moment, and then turns invisible. Unlike the monsters who can roam free in the monster area, Spell/Trap cards are always in the same position. On the other hand, the monsters are still in the allocated spot of the monster zone set in on the screen.

Tenma further strategizes by trying to figure out the enemy's formation and deck, and as he did so, a small flashback occurs. Tenma was in the middle of a group of people bothering him in a disturbing manner. However, Tenma focuses on the probability of what he could potentially draw. The problem in front of him shakes off the recollection

Tenma is bothered by the lack of control he can't exert. Nevertheless, he decides that this is the best he could do with what he has and ends his turn. At the very top of the battle, an icon hovers above which seems to indicate the phase that the turn player is in. It shows End Phase [EP].

The foe lets out a menacing grunt. A card ejects out of its deck. It draws the card and quickly activates it.

It is the spell card, Tremendous Fire.

A sudden fire burns from the enemy's back and shoot straight towards Tenma. He tries to cover himself but evading seems so difficult. The fire covers around him but a transparent spherical aura protects him and blue lights float around him. His LP drops by 1,000.

Ronnie gulps with wide eyes that this is actually happening. It seems that Tenma's shield is the LP Guard system that protects the player.

The enemy's LP drops by 500 though.

It then summons Three Headed-Geedo. A three headed freak with low agility appears. The enemy enters its Battle Phase [BP]. The monster raised its hand and clenches its fist. It points at the face-down and Stone Ogre Grotto nods. The ogre blitzes. His rocky fist drags on the floor and whooshes in the air. It lands on the face-down monster. A force of energy seems to collide.

Furthermore in this game, a player cannot attack the opponent directly if they control a monster. It is important to run monsters, especially when you have no natural defense. The enemy isn't that powerful, but he's aggressive to win, which that in itself is deadly

The face-down monster is revealed. It appears to be Aqua Madoor. The ogre's arm flings back and a thin wall of water slowly falls off the front of Tenma's monster. The enemy loses 400 LP.

It still remains calm and decides to end its turn. A player cannot change the position of a monster once it is summoned or after it has declared an attack. Its Three-Headed Geedo is left wide open.

Now it's Tenma's turn.

He draws into a spell card called Ego Boost. "Well that's something good." Tenma feels a bit relieved. He normal summons Blade Skater. A new monster suddenly skates out of the light it is coming from. She glides in a circle and then ends her entrance with an artistic posture facing the enemy. He switches Aqua Madoor to attack mode and his enters BP.

"Ridiculous." Ronnie noted. "Real life actual monsters hahaha. But where does this technology come from…" Aqua Madoor charges into the enemy's side of the field as it swiftly passes by Ronnie. Tenma smirks in the background.

Aqua Madoor casts a waterfall to crush Stone Ogre Grotto. Tenma quickly activates Ego Boost. "Ego Boost! Let's go!" Tenma rides on the excitement and a quick lightning strikes Aqua Madoor. His muscles increase a bit and his attack goes to 2,200. "This should work…" Tenma feels self-assured of his position, but suddenly...

A malevolent dark green light appears.

The invisible set card from the monster activates. It is the trap card, Depth Amulet. The foe in front of them laughs and triggers the effect. Tenma realizes that this trap card in combination with dark door can effectively end the BP. However, a response button comes out before Tenma. It is the chain mechanism.

A big yellow circle grew on the light red screen, highlighting the appropriate cards a player can use to activate in response to the situation. All of a sudden, it starts to dim fast. The duels are in real time.

"Huh!?" Tenma reacted fast, "Uragh!" He does not how to trigger the response, but whatever it is, he needs to do something and heeded himself to slam on the yellow buttons. A light note of approval sounds out. A magical wind appears.

"I use Fairy Wind…!" Tenma commands.

The enchanting gust of air expands and brushes out all face-up spell and trap cards. The menacing amulet shatters and the dark green light fades away. The Dark Door and Depth Amulet are both destroyed!

Not only that, the opponent loses 600 more LP. But so does…!

The harmonious atmosphere drops.

Tenma is caught by surprised and the gust of air moves him. He is carried up in the wind along with the monster. The air encircling them pushes skyward and when it fizzles, they roughly descended from a height not too far high but the monster is able to keep himself balanced in the air with its wings. Tenma on the other hand has his LP Guard up but it did not stay on for long, and a thump sound goes along with his landing.

The spell he used, Fairy Wind, destroys all face-up Spell and Trap cards, as well as deal 300 damage to everyone for each card destroyed. Therefore, Tenma is affected too.

Yu-Gi-Oh is a game that offsets strong cards with consequences and/or costs; it is often seen in duels where powerful cards have drawbacks.

"Must ease landing…" Tenma, with an abrupt face, twirls on the floor as he goes in conjunction with the momentum he is under and softens the impact of his landing. He looks up and watches the force of water decimating the ogre. The rock behemoth's body parts are broken and he starts to slim off. A small explosion occurs. It slowly transform to cubes that look like data, and disappears. The destruction seems to impact the monster as its wings get tossed to the side but then fixes its balance. It still firmly faces us.

As Tenma breathes in to help balance himself, that same calling from the past of which he can't tell when attempts to make him doubt himself. Narrow questions of "Why are you here?" and hypocritical denials of "No, not this!" shudders his mind. But still, he does not shake and back off from the battle.

"This duel really is intense." Tenma looks to the side. He realizes that he is getting affected by the game and it sort of strains on him. "_Getting wobbly now is not a good sign. We must get to that town as soon as possible_." Tenma looks up with fierce determination.

"Blade Skater! Attack the Three-Headed Geedo!" Tenma lets out his hands as Blade Skater cuts down the multi-headed creature. It disappears.

This time though, the monster floating in the air doesn't look affected. "I guess it depends on where we are standing and the damage being dealt with." Tenma speculates on the works of the amazing but dangerous system that is engaged now.

The monster's LP drops by 200 from that attack. The BP ends. Tenma enters his End Phase and now it's the enemy's turn.

Tenma's formation is left open. A powerful counter attack can easily turn the battle around. At any rate, something like a dark hole or strong monster can just run over his field.

Without regard to the opportunities and current field presence, the enemy simply draws and ends its turn.

"_So your deck is quite overall weak_." Tenma notes the opposition.

Tenma draws.

He drew into a monster. It is Cyber Soldier of Darkworld.

He summons it.

A dimensional portal appears and what looks like to be a space hole, an alien with what seems to be a scanner on its head comes out. Heavy clunks of an unknown alloy rackets out as it shifts to its sides each step towards the enemy.

With this, Tenma has a total of 3 monsters. The enemy has nothing on his field. He enters his battle phase.

Tenma orders all of his monsters to attack the ghoul-like zombie. The monster is in bewilderment. A wind slash from Blade Skater, a water cannon from Aqua Madoor, and a shockwave from Cyber Soldier of Darkworld all bombards it one after another. Dust clouds cover the scene and a quick wind disperses it. The monster is still alive.

The enemy has 1800 LP left. Tenma has 6400 LP

Tenma expresses signs of relief because the duel is almost over. He is not too used to actively moving while at the same figuring out strategies during gameplay. His turn ends and the enemy draws.

An ominous laugh echoes throughout the serene forest and uncomforting atmosphere. The monster activates a spell card and on the battlefield, the spell card shows itself as seen on the card. It shatters and the animation of the spell card begins. Both Ronnie and Tenma know what this is.

"Welp, time to get sacked I guess." Tenma chuckles but remains serious on the current situation. Ronnie keeps in check of the power creep of this battle, and upon seeing that spell card, he understood that it's definitely a big turnaround for this stage. It is even worse than a field wipeout.

The card is Soul Exchange.

A lucent bright green light envelopes the field!

The monster selects his Aqua Madoor, and tributes it for Flame Cerebrus. The water monster flashes away and a monstrous fire cat descends. Tenma is a bit amused because it chose Aqua Madoor, which is his strongest defense monster. Naturally, opponents would choose his strongest attack monster but apparently, it thinks ahead. Cerebrus is a weak monster in the format we usually play and is not depressingly difficult to deal with. Yet, he knows that he's not capable of dealing with it easily, especially with a set of random cards he has not a chance to look at.

"Welp, I guess we'll need the bullshit of the cards right now…" Tenma looks at his hand with useless spells.

The enemy ends its turn. Tenma draws.

He draws a trap card and it is Dark Scorpion Combination. He laughs hard about it and feels like wanting to roll over from it. "What the heck is this haha." Tenma asserts himself. Ronnie thought that it was a sign of hope but no, it is death as Tenma makes a passive formation, positioning all his monster into defense mode and ending his turn.

The enemy conducts its draw phase and quickly summons out Guardian of the Throne Room. A tank with the body of an automated robot rolls up to the battlefield. A monster that has decent attack but definitely noteworthy since that it is not too easy to deal with. Tenma has not drawn a single strong monster.

The mini missile pod launches off to Blade Skater and blows it up to smithereens. The death of that monster looks funny to Ronnie as it is like a "sudden pwnage" moment that could be replayed again and again multiple times for no reason but to tick off someone. Tenma just wants to get to his turn and finish this. This time, he's far off the blast to not feel an impact from it.

Flame Cerebrus throws out a lethal flame thrower. One would expect that the attack is similar to some kind of conry FX magic but no, it is a ferocious searing blaze of fire that burns down on Cyber Soldier of Darkworld as it dissipates and disappears forever. "Ahh. Well there goes my last monster." Tenma stares at the destruction with a pointless face and begins figuring out on what he could potentially do. Many times in Yu-Gi-Oh, you tend to have barely any or no resources on your field and then, you counter the overextending of your opponent when it's your turn. Tenma does not have that kind of potential to do that with his odd deck though. Over here, as of now, having nothing on your field did not feel the same like it was before.

Tenma draws.

It is the trap card called Inspiration.

"_Not enough_." Tenma stares at the two monsters in front of him while the enemy waits for him to end his turn. "I activate the card…!" Ronnie looks up and sees the weather above the duel change. "Acid Rain! Go!"

The other card kept in Tenma's hand is revealed.

An acidic downpour rains down from the sky. It destroys Guardian of the Throne Room. It corrodes and is destroyed. Tenma finds this quite relieving.

Ronnie looks at the duel overall and thinks to himself, "_To have such a specific card like that in a deck, and that troublesome Cerebrus…_" Ronnie knows that it's not easy to deal with a monster that strong while using a deck containing very specific counters and many other trivial cards. Tenma shouts, "That is all." Things don't look so bright after all.

His turn ends and the enemy draws, still persistent.

It ponders about the card for a sec and then rushes into battle. In this game, the strategy stage takes place before the BP; it is known as the Main Phase [MP1]. If anything strange happens or adjustment needs to be made, then one can do so in the second Main Phase [MP2] during the same turn, which is right after the BP. This monster has an intelligence to make certain accurate decisions but it doesn't seem that strong for some reason, and perhaps it is like that on purpose too.

The same fire that annihilated Cyber Soldier of Darkworld comes right after Tenma!

Tenma stances himself and tries to hold his ground. The fierce heat has a force of its own, pushing him a bit down as he struggles to stay put. The Guard shield protects him even stronger, and a drop of energy seems to take place. The same small blue lights glitter around him after the attack ends. "_The more I retaliate, the more the protection system withstands. One must always stay focus I see._" Tenma stands tall. He loses 2100 LP, putting him at 3400 LP. Just two more attacks and he's done for.

Tenma moves and goes to a better position in the chaos. There are a few burnt spots and damaged areas in the scenery but the forest around them is all still intact and not so ruined, to his surprise. He steps around the debris and gets back to the place he was first at when the duel started. He sets his sights on the goal. A cold wind blows around the destruction.

He draws and looks at it for a sec. He smiles and puts two cards face-down in his Spell/Trap zone. The monster notices his reaction and looks at its own hand. It smiles also, a sinister one though.

"I summon…" Tenma swiftly lays the card on the monster zone. A purple vortex appear and a gymnastic ape appears! "Come out now! Acrobatic Monkey!"

"No way!" A bland face of sarcasm comes up from Ronnie's mind. He begins to think that this is just one of those moments where he messes around since there is nothing much else to do. However, Tenma did set those 2 cards though, and in this kind of serious situation, something is bound to happen. Ronnie drops his act and continues to watch with summation and curiosity.

Tenma ends his turn.

With a daunting breath and inhuman vigor, the monster draws briskly. It calmly looks at the baboon, and then in a moment, it moves its armored hands in a placid manner. The monster seems to be suspicious of Tenma's sets.

It activates the spell card, Offerings to the Doom.

"Ruuargh!" The monster roars out and intends to take out Tenma.

Ronnie observes, "_I bet those set cards rely on Tenma's monster. Whatever the scenario is, if his solid defense is taken out, he's most likely in trouble._" The spell flashes a powerful, white magic to Acrobatic Ape

Then suddenly, a lightning tenacity comes forth from Tenma. He makes a declaration and the appearance of an encrusted grey shield appears. "Oh hardened armor of deterrence, I use you now. Rare Metalmorph!"

The spell activates and the armor surrounds the monkey, transforming the monster into an mechanical ape battle fighter of doom. It retains its flexibility but is also, eerily more robust. A crystalline shine deflects the attack. The white blast recedes and the monkey remains unharmed.

A silence waves over the enemy. It rationally thinks on what the next course of action should be. It pauses for a moment.

The monster decides to attack.

It orders The Flame Cerebrus to destroy the ape.

The Cerebrus commences the attack but so does the monkey! A very fast battle sequence occurs.

The mechanoid primate slashes its tail against the Cerebrus. The fiery behemoth retaliates by shooting a fast fireball against it. The ape dodges the blasts while running and then the ape pulls out its claws. The Cerebrus quickly turns its head and fires off a menacing blast towards the strike. Their powers collide.

"So this is how it happens." Tenma goes in. "A battle that occurs when counters or some other hidden moves are possible."

Tenma shouts, "Strength of the fallen, give power to the weak! Trap Card activate! Inspiration!" Tenma believes and dreams on. "Seriously!?" Ronnie speaks out in amazement and scratches his head as the monkey rises forth against its foe but that is not even the most "warm" part about it. A mirage of a few soldiers appear and empower the monkey ape with more strength! Manly men's aura shrouds the monkey and it now becomes a bright glowing machine ape of youth. Ronnie could have sworn that one of the soldiers said, "Believe."

The claw attack pierces through the fire!.

The monkey overpowers The Flame Cerebrus with 100 attack. Just 100 more attack. Any lesser and it would be either be game over for us or fighting a losing battle.

The Cerebrus scatters to dust. The Monster looks at it with bewilderment and notes its hand. It ends its turn. On the other side, Tenma knows that he needs a good card to finish the enemy off, and if he attacks with the ape, he'll still have 100 LP left. Perhaps a burn card will end this in a short fashion after the attack. However, the 1 card in its hand might be a hand trap. Ronnie waits for the next move.

It's about time. Tenma draws.

He draws into a bad card, but it's enough to end the game.

A green mini-circle appears on the light red screen. It is the sign that signifies the advanced Tribute Summon. He touches it.

"I always kinda wanted to do this." Tenma laughs. "I tribute my Acrobatic Monkey for…!

A noble yellow dragon appears. Its fangs reach out, fire marks blaze in the sky from its flight and a sharp hawk cries out. It is…

"Curse of Dragon!" Tenma confidently stands out in the distance. "Let's end this game" The finishing move has come at last.

"Now use..." Tenma passes by with his outstretched hands and disposition. "Dragon Flame!"

A dark red flare mows down the enemy. The blast covers it and a rushing gale blows from the vicinity. Its LP hits zero. Just as the LP Guard hits zero, the system acknowledges the outcome of the game. The Curse of Dragon soaring in the air flashes into a vibrant hue of colors and departs. Few thin lights appear around the area of the combat scene and quickly scatters. The battle system disengages. The winglike duel disk from the monster sets back into its original position. Tenma's duel disk dissipates as a light high-pitched sound beams out from it. The game has been decided. The victor of the duel is Tenma.

As he looks back at the thoughts of the past, he stands tall among the unruly group of people. Triumphantly, he thinks about the unreality and also concludes to them, "Hmm, what's that you said huh…" Tenma draws in. The battlefield is clear.

A Light Silver screen appears right in front of Tenma. It says 300 exp. but Tenma and Ronnie gazes at the enemy as it undergoes a strange development.

The monster backs off a bit. It rises slightly higher into the luminous air and then begins to dim out; the colors of the creature seem to dissolve. Both Ronnie and Tenma look around in astonishment of the phenomenon taking place. They both stood cautious, yet in awe as they try to get a grip of what's going on. Although, it is apparent.

The monster fades away.

After it passes, it left behind 2 items: a blue orb and currency that is surrounded in a white light. Tenma approaches them closely. The blue orb and currency drags into Tenma's Item location. "Let's see what's in there." Ronnie said.

"I guess we can know what's inside while travelling to a safe place for shelter. We don't know what else could happen around here. Perhaps in town, there is information regarding this new world."

"Oh...yes. We need to get there soon huh." Ronnie looks back and sees the battle remains of the scenery. "Well that was close. I wonder what will happen if you lose…"

"No. We sacked, we won and that's the end of the story." Tenma hurriedly moves and tries to ignore the consequences of the scenario he does lose

Nonetheless, Tenma smiles back and says, "Maybe we'll take part in some extremely bad ritual." Ronnie strikes back and goes, "Huh…!? No way. We'll be slaughtered and buried right there." His body gesture points back at the battle scene.

"Ahahaha! Then, there will be offerings to us in the side." Tenma opens the blue orb and sees that there are 10 cards.

"Mhm."

They continue their path to the large city in front of them.

Meanwhile in a Tropical Forest, a different biome located far away from where Tenma and Ronnie are, sounds of swords are heard clashing against each other. Strikes continue lashing out and a Mushroom like creature stands face to face to another person somehow stranded on here. There are exotic plants and a thick variety of trees. The person's footsteps splashes on a beck and exhales sounds of weariness throughout the area.

A female brunette with a red long sleeved shirt, slim jeans and low strap sandals peers at the battleground. She is in Mid-Battle against Mushroom Man. The enemy's LP is 2,000.

Neo The Magic Swordsman strikes on Alligator Swordsman. Before the battle, the enemy's reptile beast monster is equipped with Horn of the Unicorn but earlier, the mysterious girl uses Reverse Trap, switching that gain into a loss. This results in a heavy blow against the enemy.

Mushroom Man is shocked, "Arghh…!" The brunette does not stop her assault and stays on focus.

"Uah." A creak of success and effort. She stances herself.

It's her draw.

It is Kuriboh. Her face shows a plain unbroken expression. She evaluates the combat zone. "A useless card, but…"

The BP icon shows.

"And now my battle phase!" She confidently shouts out. She leans out her arms and cheers out her only monster. "Go! Neo The Magic Swordsman!

The enemy only has 1 monster left. Peacock, which is walking and pecking around. It sees the swordsman charge after her. Then, her feathers suddenly rile up and glows menacingly, "Cluck Claaack!". It awkwardly rushes in to attack the swordsman. However, a trap card appears from the girl's side and a bright energy covers her monster.

"Rising Energy!" She yells out and hopes to win. A gush of energy glows around Neo The Magic Swordsman.

Mushroom Man surprisingly speaks out "Uh…!" The peacock is sliced in two. A breeze drafts out from the crushing blow. Mushroom Man's LP hits zero. The system releases.

As Mushroom Man disappears, it says, "We...shall defeat you! Mark my words." It pops away.

The girl stands victorious. "Eeahahahaha! You are no match for me." She looks into her pockets to look for her phone so that she can post about her victory to friends. To her dismay, she does not see or feel any and further realizes the futility of this place. "Ughhh, now I can't even brag about it to my chat group. Well whatever."

She walks up to the area where the monster once was. There lies a yellow orb and cash shrouded in small white light. She already knows that the yellow orb contains pathetic cards. She checks out the moolah and it says "200 Ciels". Ciels is the name of the currency in this world. "There's a strange city up ahead." Then, a silver screen closes up in between the distance of her and the monster. Before it goes away, she reads it, "300 exp." and another number show, "1000." It drops down to 700. The screen then disperses after a few moments "Hmm, what's this for?" She wonders but then turns her attention elsewhere.

She notices a tall structure above the pinnacle of the trees. It looks like a town. She gives a depressing face as she scrolls through the cards she just got. "So 20 useless things." She looks up and thinks about it. "Maybe I can sell them." She grins with hopes of getting somewhere with that money.

She then looks at Neo The Magic Swordsman and thinks, "_Well, you're not as cute as Falcon-senpai but you're also exceptional._" She refers to Mist Valley Falcon as Falcon-senpai. "Although, nothing is too hard for Neko." She pats herself on the back with accomplishment.

Her name is Neko.

As Neko continues walking on, she sees a little cliff and runs towards it. Right below it is a spacious area with a waterfall. A pond with lily pads sits softly in the bottom. There are exotic flowers and herbs blossoming around. Bright colored orange and white birds sit by the branches of the trees nearby the gushing water. It is majestic.

"Aaahahahah…" She contently glimpses around the beautiful place.

She plays and approaches her destination.

Despite the new world being scary and odd, many people knew that it has brought something they long for.

This world is fun.

Truly is.

As Ronnie and Tenma both finally arrive at town, Neko candidly advances into other perils of the nature scenery and town surrounding her.

Altera.

A name that is displayed on the sign located within the outskirts of the city.

Ronnie walks towards the entrance of the Altera. Tenma hurries up and follows. They pace onward into the immense city in front of them.

While Neko checks out the vast areas to explore and heads out to a different unknown metropolis, there comes a realization. All along, these people and many others who have transported to this sanctuary, have something in common.

This haven, this world, both treacherous and a paradise, awaits them an adventure of enigma and power.


End file.
